The Coming Peril in Defending the Faith

The proposed Climate Treaty and the UN’s “Defamation of Religions” resolution plus Apostate “Christians” all threaten to cripple and even criminalize the work of God…

By Eric Barger

Updated December 10, 2009

It is no secret that the ability of believers to present the authentic Christian faith is under attack on many fronts today. However, the free speech and liberty American Christians have long enjoyed to evangelize, give a biblical defense of the faith (apologetics) and to expose false beliefs (polemics) could very possibly soon be hampered as never before since the founding of the republic 200+ years ago.

There are two proposed international treaties being promoted at this time which could, for differing reasons, greatly reduce the Church’s ability to carry out “The Great Commission” found in Matthew 28:19-20. Concerned Christians should take serious note that one of the treaties I’ll discuss here could conceivably curtail or even criminalize the making of public declarations such as “Jesus is the only way.” One doesn’t have to look far to find nations where Christianity cannot be practiced openly today. Plus, in a world increasingly hostile toward the Gospel message, it is also easy to imagine how our politically correct society might welcome the implementation of such policies. These two situations are particularly egregious and deserve our serious attention - and our prayers - for I believe that these treaties are a foretaste of what life might be like at some point in the future under the Antichrist.

THE COPENHAGEN CLIMATE TREATY

Though the United States avoided taking the hit that the Kyoto Protocol would have delivered (President George W. Bush did not sign), we may not be able to avoid what is ahead of us with the convening of the Copenhagen Climate Conference this week in Denmark. Sight unseen, President Obama has stated that he would go to Copenhagen and sign the treaty if an agreement could be reached. Well, of course he would. It is expected of him to perform thusly by the crowd who saw fit to award him the Nobel Peace Prize on the basis that he had thus far accomplished nothing. Obama’s economic plan for America reaches many years into his past as he’s drawn upon what can only be deemed as socialism, bent on punishing the United States for being, well, uh, the United States. If he signs Copenhagen (or a similar treaty), Obama will precipitate (no, actually he’ll just continue) the largest redistribution of wealth in the history of mankind to those who did nothing to earn it. We have no reason to believe he’ll change, for Obama’s actions have been consistent in placing internationalism before the Constitution he’s actually sworn to uphold.

Gratefully, we may have more time to try to alert the public as to what an enforceable Copenhagen-like treaty would really mean. It now appears that the December meeting may be little more than a well-publicized planning session to hammer the idea home that the developed world is responsible for the alleged destruction of the planet. Regardless of astounding scientific evidence to the contrary, the media will help the globalists convey the propaganda that there must be a binding system of penalties to curb carbon emissions - or else! Those pushing their agenda at Copenhagen will of course cite the “evil” developed and capitalistic countries and “greedy” multinational corporations as the culprits for our impending planetary doom. It will be deduced that those responsible must be forced to give up huge portions of their wealth - and freedom - all in the name of saving the planet. If you think you’re sick of hearing the word “green” now, just give it a little time!

Though Obama campaigned on the premise that “delay is not an option” when it comes to stemming the alleged rising of sea levels, shrinking of coastlines and destruction of polar bears, it is believed that the global warming hysteria has been met with enough scientific and intellectual opposition that the alleged threat has lost some of its scare-appeal - and support - among the U.S. public. Perhaps the most crippling blow to the theory of manmade global warming occurred just before we began producing the printed version of this report. In late November, revelations surfaced through a series of over 1,000 intercepted emails that the leading scientists pushing global warming scenarios have for years knowingly used incomplete and manipulated data to prove their claims. Besides the possibility of how these specious findings have already affected economies, these emails show the vicious and political nature of the politically correct elite in the global warming debate. Knowing it is nothing more than an elaborate hoax, some receiving large grants (and the accompanying notoriety) have refused to release all of their methods and findings, even threatening those who challenge or opposed their theories. We need to pray that “Climate Gate” will expose those involved and that honest scientists will denounce their peers who have perpetrated the notion that the byproducts of civilization’s modern existence is causing the earth to warm at a catastrophic rate.

Regardless of these new revelations - which now indict prominent “green” scientists for cooking the books instead of mankind for cooking the earth - those involved with the Copenhagen meeting have been on a roll and are certainly not going to just fade away. As could be expected, the political left (led by the President and the White House staff) are standing by manmade global warming like a dog over a bone. Their political future - at least the socialist agenda they’d hoped to impose on the world in part by promoting this hoax - is in jeopardy and, regardless of the facts, they aren’t backing down now. After all, some of them have been working on this since way back, when living in a commune, reading the Communist Manifesto, following the Maharishi, stoned on LSD and claiming their lava lamp communicated secret messages from Mother Earth!

Ah, but wait, on Wednesday, December 9, The Christian Post reported the following:

Prominent evangelical leaders along with representatives of other religions are attending the United Nations summit on climate change in Copenhagen this week, where they aim to persuade global leaders to support cuts in carbon emissions.

Among the evangelical figures present in Copenhagen are Richard Cizik, former vice president of the National Association of Evangelicals, and Jim Ball, a leader at the Evangelical Environmental Network.

Mainline church leaders who are at the summit include Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury and spiritual head of the Anglican Communion; Desmond Tutu, an archbishop emeritus of the Anglican Communion and Nobel Peace Prize laureate; and leaders of the National Council of Churches, according to USA Today.

It is no shock that Cizik is involved. His outspoken views touting global warming as absolute fact had made him an extremely polarizing figure in the evangelical movement for several years. Then, in December, 2008, he resigned from his post at the NAE amid the controversy created when he admitted to supporting same-sex civil unions and that his views were shifting on gay marriage. (Source Here, Source Here)

The Evangelical Environmental Network was founded in 1993 by neo-evangelical, Ron Sider, to lobby and promote "left-leaning politics from within a conservative theological framework." (Source Here)

Just as when it is used as a descriptor of Emergent Church leaders, the term "evangelical" in reference to these folks is truly a double entendre.

THIS BOLOGNA IS NOTHING NEW

Sixteen years ago I wrote, “The stated goal of the New World Order is to establish a global government. To do this, the redistribution of the wealth of the United States is mandatory. The New World Order simply cannot happen if we remain financially strong.” I also stated that the public’s perception of any pending global catastrophe - whether real or imaginary - would promptly be pounced upon as a tool to cede sovereignty from sovereign nations and into the grip of the global elite. That same year (1993) I recorded the video “The New World Order and the Environment… or How to Rule the World Through Fear.” (See here) What I observed nearly two decades ago is materializing right before our eyes today. Even conservative pundits (such as Rush Limbaugh, heretofore a naysayer concerning the encroachment of globalism) are now sounding daily alarms concerning this very thing.

Though admittedly there is a biblical case to be made for thoughtful custodial care of the earth, the current global warming frenzy is simply an extension of fanaticism from the recent past. Whether it was global warming, planetary extinction from alleged ozone depletion or the assurance that the earth was about to enter the next ice age, all of these like-minded movements fingered mankind as the culprit. They also all lacked one thing as well. Though leftists have succeeded in pushing the various environmental nightmare scenarios as absolute fact (using every medium from school curriculum to motion pictures), they have yet to achieve scientific consensus to validate their assertions. Even though the mainstream media has done their best to ignore them, and their peers have denigrated and ostracized them, the scientists and climatologists who've not walked the party line have thankfully managed to fuel and grow a burgeoning opposition movement.

There is something else that the various "save the planet" movements have had in common which truly does make the heart race. A careful study of biblical prophecy indicates that we are surely watching the construction of the system over which the Antichrist will someday rule. One common thread in building this global system for the Man of Sin is firmly predicated on the perception that mankind is destroying the planet - whether that is reality or not. Mirroring Paul's predictions in II Timothy 3 and 4, many leading the world toward what eventually becomes Antichrist's system are displaying a "form of godliness" claiming to be "Christians," evangelicals, no less. With all of this and so much more, one could easily be caught up in hopelessness and despair. However the Bible never instructs us to be fatalistic. Silence or surrender are simply not options, either. Instead, we must resist efforts like Copenhagen and list the consequences to anyone willing to listen. By destroying America’s freedom and financial solvency, be it at the hand of Obama, some unscrupulous scientists, or a bunch of misguided cultists, earth worshipers and neo-evangelicals, they are, know it or not, helping to build Satan's end-time system. But I digress.

There can be no doubt of what the one-worlders and climate-fear fanatics are trying to accomplish, whether sooner or later. In promotion of the Copenhagen treaty, The World Wildlife Fund’s Panda.org states, “Climate change experts from leading non-governmental organizations (from 192 countries) have written their blueprint for a legally binding Copenhagen agreement.” The WWF is also insisting that, regardless of how many politicians may resist, a binding treaty must happen - NOW. (Source Here)

Yahoo Answers rightly explained that “The Copenhagen Treaty would transfer control of the United States from the American voters to an International Committee.” This politically incorrect view has recently been eliminated from Yahoo. (Source Here)

British intellectual, commentator, and climate expert, Lord Christopher Monckton, told a crowd at Bethel University in St. Paul, MN, on October 14 that the expressed purpose of the treaty was stated therein. Having read the 200 page treaty, Monckton related that the real reason for the proposed Copenhagen Treaty is that through it a world government will be created and that the Treaty clearly spells this out in no uncertain terms. He also pointed out that once our nation signs and ratifies such a treaty there is no going back without the rest of the signers agreeing to let us out. There is no chance we’d ever be excused from a treaty like Copenhagen since the United States will no doubt be the largest monetary contributor. Lord Monckton stated that the Copenhagen Treaty actually states this and that secondly, a monumental transfer of wealth will take place because of what the Treaty calls “climate debt” which the developed countries allegedly owe to the world society for all of their past consumption. Monckton warns that the third leg of the Treaty is enforcement. ENFORCEMENT? As I said in 1993, the one-world crowd hates nationalism and needs a crisis, either real or perceived, which leads to economic mayhem, followed by the creation of a global government which supposedly fixes the problem but, more importantly, puts them in charge.

I know it sounds Orwellian, but this is now the reality that the globalists and the enviro-nuts are succeeding in creating and ignoring it is a far worse solution than exposing it. I suggest everyone take the four minutes needed to hear what Lord Monckton has to say. He is warning us in no uncertain terms to act before the globalists succeed in what would likely be an irreversible plan. To watch the video on my YouTube channel Click Here.

Monckton, a former policy adviser to Margaret Thatcher during her years as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, has also challenged former VP, Al Gore, to a debate concerning the validity of Gore’s claims brought forth in his film, An Inconvenient Truth. Monckton said, "A careful study of the substantial corpus of peer-reviewed science reveals that Mr. Gore's film, An Inconvenient Truth, is a foofaraw of pseudo-science, exaggerations, and errors, now being peddled to innocent schoolchildren worldwide." (Source Here) Gore, another do-nothing recipient of the Nobel Prize, has, of course, ignored the challenge.

British Parliament member Daniel Hannan echoed Monckton’s warnings during an interview with Fox News Channel’s Glenn Beck on October 23. Sounding as if he were quoting my 1993 video presentation, Hannon cited Canadian New Ager, Maurice Strong (organizer of the 1992 Earth Summit held in Rio and business partner of Al Gore), as a coordinator of the Copenhagen conference. Oh joy.

Strong and many other one-world radicals detest national sovereignty and success, in particular ours. The US Constitution is a relic that means nothing to them. If our illustrious president signs a Copenhagen-like climate treaty and our left-leaning US Senate ratifies it, we have indeed effectively relinquished our freedoms and sovereignty to a global government.

Don’t forget that the global warming crowd are the real fanatics who dominate what you hear through the mainstream media and much of what is taught in the government-run schools. They have forcefully used a matter-of-fact approach similar to that employed by the evolutionists to ram their unsubstantiated ideology down the throats of a gullible public. How dare you doubt that the sky is falling, they say. That’s easy. Just check out these two extensive resources we’ve linked conveniently on www.ericbarger.com:

“Fire and Ice” by R. Warren Anderson and Dan Gainor: “Journalists have warned of climate change for 100 years, but can’t decide whether we face an ice age or warming.” Anderson and Gainor nail the political nature of the current climate change frenzy and give solid reasons why politicians, pundits and educators who push the global warming hoax as fact have little to stand on.

Global Warming Petition Project - Signed by 31,478 American scientists, including 9,029 with PhDs. Upon its release (at the Washington, DC, National Press Club) only Fox News covered the story. Why? It’s simply because these 31,000+ scientists and educators dared to contradict the prescribed, globalist-socialist rhetoric and state that there isn't a shred of evidence that mankind is the cause of global warming! (Let’s remember, too, that for several years the mean temperature of the planet has been cooling but the globalists want you to either be ignorant of or disregard that, also.)

Find these important pieces and more linked at: www.ericbarger.com/infomenus/nwo.htm.

Some of you may be aware that the discount warehouse chain, Costco, featured an article by Al Gore in their monthly magazine, The Costco Connection, in November, 2009. The article was intended to promote Gore’s latest book, Our Choice: A Plan to Solve the Climate Crisis but instead drew overwhelming opposition. In the December issue of The Costco Connection, the editors readily admitted they were not expecting such a reaction. (Advertisers should take the hint that millions of us are sick of hearing the words “environmentally friendly” and “green” in advertising associated with products let alone being subjected to Al Gore on the cover of The Costco Connection. My wife’s first reaction was to simply toss the magazine without opening it!) One letter to the editor noted several customers who were canceling their Costco memberships. Another noted that “Mr. Gore has been thundering pseudo science, half truths, full-on lies and garbage science supported by secret and distorted data for several years now.” Still another letter suggested that Costco should contact Dr. Fred Singer, professor emeritus of environmental sciences at the University of Virginia, for an opposing opinion. To their credit, Costco did just that and asked Singer, one of the most vocal opponents to global warming, to write for their December issue. To see his comments and other letters to the editor Click Here.

HOW A BINDING CLIMATE TREATY WOULD CRIMP OUR CHRISTIAN WITNESS

Though it is not a slam dunk that an agreement will be reached next month in Copenhagen, the UN, smelling blood (…or is that oil in the water?), has stated that by 2010 they will indeed have constructed a binding climate change treaty - the results of which will indeed be cataclysmic to an already weakened United States economy. That’s probably putting it mildly. These people are not going to stop until they bring down the great evil nation who opposes their New Age worldview and who have polluted the planet and so troubled Mother Earth. Don’t forget, the same sort of regulations are being concocted in the halls of Congress under the heading of “Cap-and-Trade” by Representatives Waxman and Markey and Senators Boxer and Kerry - all far-left ideologues. Please note also that the chairman of the Copenhagen Climate Council, Tim Flannery, is a primary proponent of global Cap and Trade regulations. To fully understand the cap-and-trade craziness, visit my YouTube channel and watch as two veteran lawyers from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) explain this scam. (See it Here)

American Christians must understand that, besides limiting our ability to manufacture goods, grow food and travel freely, there is an eternally ominous component to all of this. Beyond a marked and rapid decline of our standards and way of life in North America, an enforceable climate change treaty would decimate the ability of Christians here to continue being the overwhelming and primary funding source for evangelism, missionary endeavors, and general spreading of the Gospel of Jesus Christ throughout the world. Whether real or merely perceived, we cannot miss the fact that Satan is pulling the strings and controlling not the temperature but the accompanying climate change hysteria. He surely knows that the United States economy must be neutralized so as to stem further worldwide evangelistic efforts by Christians bent on carrying out Jesus’ commands to “go into all of the world.” THIS IS THE BOTTOM LINE THAT WE MUST STAND AND PRAY AGAINST.

MUSLIMS SEEK TO MUZZLE OPPOSITION

Much has been said concerning the passage and signing of the new “hate crimes” law. Readers here probably already understand that this new law adds no teeth to shutting down crime but is instead designed to shut down opposition and stifle debate concerning not just homosexuality but also false religious systems. The Hate Crimes law, passed as a part of the 2010 Defense Authorization bill, is just one more hurdle for Christians to jump if we intend to truly carry out the scriptural mandate to reach the lost and warn them of the godless eternity ahead for all who reject Jesus Christ. The real hate crime occurs when we shrink back from adequately sounding the fire alarm concerning sin and worthless religions.

If you think the newly enacted hate crimes bill is an affront to free speech and unconstitutional (which I believe it will be found to be), then you need to understand that there is an influential movement within the United Nations that has attempted to muzzle all vocal opposition to Islam every year since 1999. Though couched as a generic “defamation of religion” resolution, make no mistake this move, sponsored yearly by the Organization of Islamic Conference, is all about silencing the critics of Islam. If such a resolution is ever adopted as “binding,” it would probably be enforced through an international police-like watchdog agency and could realistically bring a halt to legally conducting Christian apologetics as we know it. Referred to as a “global blasphemy law,” dozens of human rights and free speech advocates have denounced the adopting of such a law which this year received its highest number of votes, inching closer toward passage at the UN. Remarkably, even Secretary of State Hillary Clinton blasted the UN’s adoption of the yearly non-binding resolution as an encroachment on individual liberty, saying, “An individual’s ability to practice his or her religion has no bearing on others’ freedom of speech.” (Source Here) It may be a completely foreign concept but can you say “Way to go, Hillary”?

APOSTATE CHRISTIANS ON ISLAM AND GLOBAL WARMING

Over the past twenty-plus years we have observed the growing rejection of Christian principles, biblical morality, and the core message of the Church. This is surely a sign of the days we are living in as the love of many is indeed growing cold (Matthew 24:12) - and as the world is heating up in its opposition to biblical standards and the truth that our Savior is not just “a way” but indeed the only way. However, perhaps the most viral danger facing Bible-believers is not from global warming nuts or Islamic extremists but rather from within the recognized Church.

For example, you may be aware that the godfather of the Emergent Church, Brian McLaren, recently encouraged his followers to fast with Muslims during their celebration of Ramadan.

In September, McLaren wrote on his blog "Ramadan is the Muslim holy month of fasting for spiritual renewal and purification. It commemorates the month during which Muslims believe Mohammed received the Quran through divine revelation, and it calls Muslims to self-control, sacrificial generosity, and solidarity with the poor, diligent reading of the Quran and intensified prayer." He also encouraged Christians to “…come close to our Muslim neighbors and to share this important part of life with them."

McLaren and others identifying themselves as “Christians” have for some time been busy trying to find commonalities between Islam and Christianity. Ignoring history and the Bible, these foolish “Christians” continue to push their Muslim-Christian agenda, based on the misguided notion that the two religions share a common spiritual bond - namely that their god is our God. As I have written and reiterated, Allah and Jehovah are not and could not be one and the same; thus, it is impossible for authentic Christians to form righteous spiritual alliances with Muslims. (See “Their god is NOT our God” at www.ericbarger.com.)

It seems to me that instead of apparently agreeing with Muslims in the yearly celebration commemorating Mohammad’s alleged reception of the Qur’an from Allah (i.e., Ramadan), we should instead be fasting and praying against the effects of the Qur’an. In the wacky spiritual world of Emergent thinking they have lost sight of the more than one billion Muslim souls who are lost in Islam and destined for eternity in the Lake of Fire!

Now, perhaps just as troubling is the recent interreligious symposium promoting some kind of "common ground" between Buddhism and Christianity held at the aforementioned Bethel University in St. Paul, MN. This is just the sort of thing we can expect to see more of in the days ahead if the Emergent Church crowd has their way.

At the same time, some “evangelical” Christian leaders, such as National Association of Evangelicals President, Leith Anderson, and Rick Warren, perhaps today’s most visible professed evangelical, have cast their support behind the global warming fallacy. For several years Anderson, Warren and others, such as Ron Sider and Brian McLaren (who receives tour sponsorship from the far-left leaning Sierra Club), have followed political correctness and have treated the supposition of manmade carbon emissions (anthropogenic global warming) as a factual reality. This goes on even though there is no clear cut consensus concerning planetary temperature trends across the majority of the scientific community, whom the mostly PC media is unwilling to acknowledge.

Understand that I don’t like smoggy, dirty air, I want clean water and, yes, I recycle. But people who claim to be Christians should understand the perspective that God created the planet for mankind…mankind was NOT created for the planet. It is truly troubling to hear people alleging to be Christians making statements that Jesus sent us to save the planet (i.e., McLaren) when in reality we are to present His truths to the lost humans instead. Did I mention that mankind is not going to destroy the planet? No, God is going to take care of that, as the Scriptures clearly indicate, replacing it with a “new heaven and a new earth” (Rev. 21:1)! It is advisable that Christians stop the untoward, New Age-prone affection many are showing the planet and start upholding a biblical worldview instead. (Read Romans 1:21-32)

WHAT TO DO?

If a Copenhagen-like treaty were enacted, it could cause funding for evangelism to quickly dry up due the financial hardship, joblessness, and resulting depression. Many experts warn that such an extreme international law might foist this economic condition upon developed countries, in particular the United States. Secondarily, if a binding UN resolution, like the one the OIC is relentlessly pushing, were passed into law, believers would also be faced with another dilemma. Even with ample funding to spread the Gospel, evangelistic Christians would conceivably have to defy powerful political and legal pressure in carrying out our duty to publically uphold that Jesus is indeed the only way for mankind to be saved.

These treaties and so much more are all signals of just where we are in time. We are observing just a small portion of the predicted End-Times predicaments of freedom of speech, finances, and solidarity concerning outreach and evangelism to a lost and dying world. Surely, Jesus’ warnings in Matthew 24, Paul’s in II Thessalonians 2, and the construction of the three-tiered system described in Revelation 13 are all taking shape before us. Yet, I reiterate that fatalism is certainly not the answer.

Scripture teaches that prayer, obedience and complete surrender to the Lord determines many outcomes. Surely God has the answers for our day just as he did for King Jehosophat when he faced seemingly overwhelming pagan foes (II Chronicles 20). He and the people of Judah were staring certain death in the eye but when he could have given up, turned tail and run, he heard the confidant and sure word of the Lord and stood fast. I believe the same is true today for us, the remnant, who refuse to let go of God’s precious Word in the face of hostile and mounting opposition. We may be about to experience some of the greatest victories ever granted by our supernatural and mighty God!